How to: Define a "Bar"

[T.C]

"I always thought a bar was 2 lines, not 1.

Take this portion of Xzibit's LAX for example..

Break down your whole regime, like an M-16
Make sure the chamber in the barrel is clean (End of bar 1)
And the spring that's connected to the firin pin
That's connected to the trigger when I squeeze it again, begin (End of bar 2)

I've always heard thats how bars were counted, maybe I've been wrong."

yeah a lot of cats get that confused because they think a bar is when you make a complete rhyme with two lines. ever notice how long some underground cats' verses are?...thats because they write verses based on your example....which would make a 16 bar verse really a 32 bar verse...


the other cats in the thread are also talking about a the definition of a bar from a music composition stand point (counting 4 beats in a 4/4 song, 3 beats in a 3/4 song)....and their definitions are also correct.

 

[Slide]

^ I always thought that too..basically, I always thought a bar was two measures. I know that in composition terms, a bar is the same as a measure. But in rap terms, I thought it had a different implication.

 

[C-MOB]

As long as you get your point across in your verse and it ain't too damn long, it really don't matter. I guess that only goes for rappers who actually rap about somethin though.

 

[BETO916]

^^^^good example

 

[C-MOB]

Thank you.

 

[Unkut Yola]

Try to freestyle. If you can stay on beat, then you probably know what a bar is without even knowing it.

GIVE THIS MAN A HAND ....y'all fuckers got all complex for nuthin... lol

broke it down like long division

 

[weebles303]

99% of hip hop is written in 4/4, 4 beats to every bar, correct me if im wrong, but majority of techs beats are 4/4 but he spits up to sixteen sylables for each bar, thats four sounds for one beat, not easy

 

[in10city_131x]

99% of hip hop is written in 4/4, 4 beats to every bar, correct me if im wrong, but majority of techs beats are 4/4 but he spits up to sixteen sylables for each bar, thats four sounds for one beat, not easy

yeah, if you listen to "be warned", some of that shit averages around sixteen note triplets - 6 sylables to a beat, 24 sylables to a bar. or more. whether that's hard or not to do is not directly related to how many sylables you can spit because in this case you have to take the bpm into consideration. the lower the tempo, the more time you have to spit those 16 or 24 or whatever number of syllables in that one bar.

 

[DaSlacker]

its not how many syllables though. Its how many beats are in the measure.

When soneome says "I'm gonna spit 16 bars" they mean "Im going to rap over 16 bars in this beat"

 

[triple 3]

how long is this thread going to last? bars are important in music, but shit. this is starting to get retarded.

 

[mizzouplaya]

^^^ well it is gonna continue to last if you keep posting on it

 

[in10city_131x]

its not how many syllables though. Its how many beats are in the measure.

When soneome says "I'm gonna spit 16 bars" they mean "Im going to rap over 16 bars in this beat"

No.
he started talkin about syllables so we were done with the old topic and started talkin about syllables and how fast tech spits. idiot.

j/k